Past Winners

Read the 2025 recap: Student Innovation Challenge 2025: Introducing tomorrow’s problem solvers

Applied Research category:

First Place – $3,000
Project: A Custom 3D Printed Size Adjustable Inner Flexible Prosthetic Socket
Description: A flexible, size-adjustable prosthetic socket compatible with vacuum suspension systems.
Team: Quinn Baak, Ryan Dorsers
School/Program: School of Health Sciences – Prosthetics and Orthotics

Second Place – $1,500
Project: Echo of the North – Inuinnaqtun Language Preservation Application
Description: A mobile and web app supporting the preservation of the endangered Inuinnaqtun dialect.
Team: Catherine Queenan, Soomin Jeong, Eugenie Kim, Amal Allaham
School/Program: School of Computing & Academic Studies –  Computer Systems Technology

Third Place – $500
Project: ReelEZ
Description: An adaptive fishing reel designed for individuals with limb differences or disabilities.
Team: Matthew Mansfield, Luis Chavez, Odin Lithgow
School: School of Health Sciences

Entrepreneurship category:

First Place – $3,000
Project: AdPacks
Description: Advertiser-funded food packaging that provides small restaurants with free packaging solutions and offers brands a targeted marketing channel.
Team: Andy Jeong
School/Program: School of Business + Media – Marketing Management

Second Place – $1,500
Project: ParticiMate
Description: An AI-driven, voice-based classroom participation tracker.
Team: Oceaan Pendharkar
School/Program: School of Computing & Academic Studies – Computer Systems Technology

Third Place – $500
Project: Transforming Kitchen Management with Mondays
Description: A voice-activated task management tool to streamline restaurant operations.
Team: Layda Gongora
School/Program: School of Business + Media – Project Management

Sustainability category:

First Place – $3,000
Project: Ecometer
Description: A platform connecting eco-conscious consumers with sustainability-committed restaurants.
Team: Ky Duyen Mai, Ethan Van Dyk, Charles Stathis, Abdulqadir Abuharrus, Kim Nguyen
Schools/Program: School of Business + Media –
Marketing Management and School of Computing & Academic Studies

Second Place – $1,500
Project: Viable Circular Solutions for Plate Glass
Description: An initiative to repurpose plate glass and keep it out of landfills.
Team: Julianne Johnson, Alexandra Huang, Anna Lewis, Simon Donald, Riku Kurosaka, Jane Razenkova
Schools/Program: School of Business + Media – Sustainable Business Leadership

Third Place – $500
Project: Removal of Ammonium from Water by Adsorption on Canadian Natural Zeolite
Description: A low-cost, natural method for purifying water contaminated with ammonium.
Team: Natalia Nolasco Canales, Andrea Verrocchi Reyes, Jonathan Zaldivar Guereca
Schools/Program: School of Energy – Chemical and Environmental Technology

Community category:

First Place – $1,000
Project: Enhancing Chronic Disease Management in Rural British Columbia Through Integrated Telehealth
Description: A telehealth-based solution aimed at improving chronic disease management and healthcare access for rural communities in BC.
Team: Harnoor Singh, Vansh Gupta
School: School of Business + Media – Finance

Read the 2024 recap: 2024 Student Innovation Challenge winners showcase innovative projects

Applied Research category:

1st Place – $3,000
Project: Elbow Extensor Aid
Description: A tension system for triceps functionality, aiding C-5 spinal cord injury patients in daily activities and rehabilitation.
Team: Mutjaba Saloojee, Mason Breshna
School/Program: School of Health Sciences and School of Computing and Academic Studies

2nd Place – $1,500
Project: Dry-Type Transformer Load Distribution Optimization in Commercial Buildings
Description: Optimizing transformer loads in buildings to save money, energy and lower greenhouse emissions.
Team: Hardeep Atwal, Bhumika Arora, Marcus Redford, Omar Kebedov
School/Program: School of Energy – Electrical Engineering

3rd Place – $500
Project: SilhouetteSync
Description: A real-time fitness tracker that enhances performance and prevents injuries.
Team: Kieran MacCarraon, Anton Babiy, Myles Parfeniuk, On Kang
School/Program: School of Energy – Electrical Engineering

Entrepreneurship category:

1st Place – $3,000
Project: Budget Eats
Description: A community-driven platform designed to find affordable dining options.
Team: Hairun Huang
School/Program: School of Computing and Academic Studies – Computer Systems Technology

2nd Place – $1,500
Project: SafeScan Drone Analytics
Description: Drone-based LiDar for safer, efficient building façade inspections.
Team: Andrey Lykov
School/Program: School of Construction and the Environment – Applied Science in Building Engineering/Building Science

3rd Place – $500
Project: Bumper Dumper
Description: Portable vehicle hitch toilet seat for outdoor use.
Team: Logan Murray
School/Program: School of Transportation – Marine Engineering

Sustainability category:

1st Place – $3,000
Project: To Sea Beneath
Description: An underwater virtual reality education and entertainment experience.
Team: Valerie Billard
School/Program: School of Business + Media – Project Management

2nd Place – $1,500
Project: FishCenS V2
Description: Monitoring salmon populations with a cost-effective, long-term machine learning solution.
Team: Luis Vargas, Weihao Dai, Tristan Huen, Jonathan Sinnathamby
School/Program: School of Energy – Electrical Engineering

3rd Place – $500
Project: Wind Turbine Charge Controller
Description: Cost-effective micro wind turbine designed to power homes, especially those in remote communities.
Team: Garnett Goodacre, Kurt Querengesser, Seung Uk Lee, Michael Dao,
School/Program: School of Energy – Electrical Engineering

Applied Research

• First place ($5000) was awarded to Laurel Kinahan and Jacob Doyle, School of Energy students  for “IHearU”
• Second place ($1500) was awarded to Kevin Rosenthal, Janet Ti, and Lulu Wang, School of Health Sciences for their project “The Honey Pusher”
• Third place ($500) was awarded to Frances Skulj, Kristel Fajalongo, and Maria Narro, School of Energy for their project “Separation and Quantification of Organic Fluorine to Determine Potential PFAS Contamination in Sappho Cosmetics.”

• First Place ($5000) was awarded to Junior Thiensirisak, School of Construction and the Environment, for his product “Cloudi.”
• Second place ($1500) was awarded to Qaidin Noory, School of Computing and Academic Studies, for his project “Mobile App Entrepreneurship”
• Third place ($500) was awarded to Katarina Carlton, School of Construction and the Environment for her project “GroundsUp.”

Sustainability

• First place ($5000) went to Jimmy Bates, Sahil Heer, Stephen Cyr, and Tom Kuzma, School of Energy, for their project “Fish-CenS.”
• Second place ($1500) was awarded to Henning Grote, School of Business and Media, for his project “Dish-Re-Dish”
• Third place ($500) went to Doug Setter, School of Business and Media, for his project “Food Expiry App.” 

Read the 2022 recap: Fiercely competitive projects win big

First Place ($3,250)*

*This is the first year we had a tie for first place, (down to the decimal point), combining first and second prizes, two first-place winners were announced.

• The first team for 1st prize in Applied Research Category was awarded to Denise Chew, Aeden McClain, Brittany Lo, Aidan Thomlinson, Victor Ly, Bhupinder Thind, Jessica Hong, Kyle Wu, Spencer Loren, Brian Card, Edgar Coime, Jordan Godau, Katherine Marie Olaguer, April Tsang, Giwoun Bae and Nicholas Johnston, School Of Computing and Academic Studies for “EMA YVR Water Monitoring” – using IoT to monitor water quality at YVR, 24/7, in real-time.
• The second team for 1st prize for Applied Research went to Kieran Bako, Lucas Hall, Kristian Neilsen and Matthew Peeters from the School of Energy for “Searchlight Scanner” – a GoPro camera and advanced AI-based image processing algorithms scan for the lost hikers, in real-time.

First Place ($5000)

• Entrepreneurship Category: Kariffe Phillips, Hussan Sarwar and Harsimar Makkar from the School of Computing and Academic Studies for “Campus-Wide Computer Repair” –helping to reduce the cost of computer repairs and servicing for students, faculty and staff.
• Sustainability Category: Aleks Zawadzki, Eric Cheng, David Tang and Mo Amirian from the School of Energy for “Undersea Laboratory” – a novel device built to investigate water conditions and marine life, with minimal environmental impact.

Second Place ($1,500)

• Entrepreneurship category: Sara Wasim, Adam Siyala, Linda Nguyen, Jamie Samuel, and Matteo Miceli from the School of Computing and Academic Studies for “Minerva” – a one-of-a-kind text editor for developers that makes writing markdown easy.
• Sustainability category:  Nicholas Tsang, Adam van der Goes, Joseph Yu,  and Douglas Zheng, from the School of Energy for “Energy Balance Measurement” – to provide BCIT the tools for implementing energy-saving initiatives in Air Handing Units across campus.

Third Place ($500)

• Applied Research category:  Jason Zhang, Joby Matwick, Gary Huang, Yao Li from the School of Energy for “Data Sock” – a product that can be used by clinicians to help diagnose and treat diabetic foot ulcers.
• Entrepreneurship category:  Matt Hardwick and Steven Palfrey from the School of Business and Media for “Chickadee Invest” – a web app for buying, trading, and selling for fractional shares of commercial real estate.
• The Sustainability category: Anna Okorokov from the School of Business and Media for “Burgess 21”, a fashion line that utilizes sustainably made fabrics (from cactus) with existing clothing to create new products.

Creative new ideas!

After taking a break in 2020 due to the sudden challenge of COVID and remote teaching and learning, the Student Innovation Challenge was back in 2021 with a strong set of submissions from across BCIT. We received 16 submissions from 14 programs and five BCIT Schools. The winners:

Entrepreneurship

1. Austin Molby from the School of Construction and the Environment came first with Tea Gems.
2. Aman Duisek and Mike Chen from School of Energy and Rakhymzhan Duisek from the School of Business + Media placed second for Tatti Food.
3. Mustaffa Hamad  from the School of Construction and the Environment was third with Green Space Minded.

Applied Research

1. Aileen Maynard, John Matson, and Jonathan Oliveros from the School of Energy won with their Real‐Time Orca Detection System project.
2. Harvy Takhar from the School of Construction and the Environment came second with Connected Blue‐Green Roofs.
3. Dmitriy Kalinov, Billal Rahimi, Owen Ternoway, and Max Horie from the School of Energy were third with Gencephalon: Brain Computer Interface for the Physically Impaired.

Honourable mention went to Kelsey Wong from the School of Construction and the Environment for Enhancing Your Dining Experience with the Click of a Button.

Sustainability Prize

New for 2021, the Sustainability Prize was awarded to Harvy Takhar from the School of Construction and the Environment for his applied research innovation Connected Blue‐Green Roofs. The award was presented by donor Donald Yen.

Exciting and diverse student ideas

2019’s Challenge had the most exciting and diverse student submissions with representation from all six BCIT Schools and 15 program areas. The Applied Research Liaison Office received 26 submissions, all of which included business plans that were carefully reviewed by a judging panel from various areas of BCIT. The winners:

Entrepreneurship

1. Logan Van De Poll, Quinn Newell, Joshua Ceraldi, Nicolas Griffiths, Dillion McGee, and Claire McCallum from the School of Business took home the first prize with their innovative BrewBar submission.
2. Mike Dahlstedt from the School of Transportation placed second for DRIVE Hockey
3. Max Jones and Chelsea Reed from the School of Business finished third for Jones Baby and Company.

Applied Research

1.  First prize was awarded to Joshua Lang, Neil De Hoog, and Brandon Pham from the School of Energy for Aerial Ignition System for Wildfire Applications.
2. Second place went to Terry Calderbank, Navraj Kambo, and Brayden Aimar from the School of Energy for their submission on Autonomous Grape Harvesting Robot
3. Derek Wong, Maksym Chumsak, and Shaun Tseng from the School of Computing and Academic Studies received third place for Complex Elastic Optical Network Simulator.

BCIT students with “Bright Ideas” win BIG

We had more than $13,000 in prizes and received the most exciting and diverse student submissions with representation from all the schools in 2018.

Entrepreneurship

1. Abdul Saboor Meherzad for Divine Natural Bars. Read about Abdul and Divine Natural Bars in BCIT Link magazine: Divine Inspiration.
2. Katie Haddad and Nancy Mach were 2^nd with Hempkin (now Pepita Fresh)
3. Nicolas Griffiths was 3^rd with Morty Board.

Applied Research

1. Combined Source Geo Exchange System: Emily Robinson, Eric Jacobson and Aaron Rendina
2. ROCES: Recovery and Optimization for Copper Recovery Systems: Navtej Heir and Andrew Ydenberg 2^nd
3. VOLANTIS Convertible Drone: Timothy Or, Yu Hong Lam, Yuxuan Zheng, and Nicky Man in 3^rd.

Garth Newlands, marching to a new improved beat

Garth Newlands won the Entrepreneurship Award in the Student Innovation Challenge with his Ganaan Drum Harness and Mounting System. His innovation will improve marching band drum harnesses through an improved design and new materials.

The Applied Research Award was shared between two projects: Spencer Clayton, with his Targeted Darkening Eyewear Technology, and Andrew Miltimore and Aaron Rendina, for ElastoKers, a modular kinetic energy recovery system for a bicycle.

Jeff Wright and Shane Bates finish ahead using 3D printing

Jeff Wright and Shane Bates won the Student Innovation Challenge with their project “Using 3D Printing to Design a New Cranial Remodeling Orthosis”, which improves on current processes to treat brachycephaly, a condition in which babies have flat spots on their skulls.

Jamie Haakons and Jenny Chen win with AutoGarden

Mechanical engineering student Jamie Haakons and his partner from School of Business Jenny Chen claimed the $1,500 first place prize at Student Innovation Challenge with their innovative take on gardening, AutoGarden.

Broadcast Logger wins for Curtis Machek

Curtis Machek, with Broadcast Logger, a cloud-based audio logger built for radio broadcasters by radio broadcasters, won this year’s Student Innovation Challenge in the best business venture category. Best Applied Research Project went to Kasun Somoratne, a student in the School of Energy, for Smart Turn, an all-in-one bicycle electrical instrumentation system.

Website: Cloudcast Software

Gabriel Castanon and his Venterosso wine aerator wins

Gabriel Castanon with his innovative wine aerator, the Venterosso, won the 2013 Student Innovation Challenge. The judges were impressed with how thoroughly he had developed the Venterosso, and he was fully prepared for all the questions the judges threw at him. Second Place went to School of Business students Elton Lu and Yahoel Van Essen for Apparel Exclusive, their innovative loyalty and rewards business model aimed at local fashion markets. Best Business Plan prize went to Nalumbikya Mgana for his city parking solution, SENN Sensor. Best Applied Research prize went to a group of 3 engineers, Clayton McMunn, Tariq Shobab and Alex Hufsmith, for their “Third Wheel”, an innovative trailer solution for motorcycles. Finally, Best Pitch went to Tyler Basu, whose idea for the Challenge was the Chatting with Champions online community.

Nicola Gardner wins with Green Earth

Business Administration student and current President of BCIT’s Student Association, Nicola Gardner, took home the third annual Innovation Challenge top prize of $5,000 for her idea of a food waste collection company called Green Earth. A former restaurant server, Nicola was often bothered by how much food went to waste. Green Earth would pick up food waste from commercial food service units in Greater Vancouver and then deliver it to organic processing facilities where it could be turned into compost or bio-fuel. Runner up and recipient of the $1,000 prize, went to Jag Manhas for his company Ads on Naps. Jag’s advertising company sells high-definition ad space on napkins, which are provided free of charge to businesses in Canada. Ads on Naps also took part in a mini-Dragon’s Den hosted by the SFU Beedie School of Business.

BCIT’s Grace Soo delivers winning idea with SHIFT Delivery

Grace Soo’s idea about a delivery service using zero-emission cargo tricycles called SHIFT beat out nearly 50 submissions to win the 2011 Challenge to pocket the $5,000 cash grand prize. Soo and her four partners at SHIFT operate a zero-emission delivery service using tricycles which have the capability to pull as much as 600 pounds. Second place, and an Apple iPad, went to Rhonda Dent (Marketing Management) for her idea of the Sun Center, a proposed wellness center for people who get Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).

Website: SHIFT Delivery

Michael Hubele wins first Student Innovation Challenge with website idea

In the first year of the Challenge, BCIT computing student Michael Hubele won the BCIT Innovates Student Challenge by developing the website OnlineStudentPlanner.com.